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Thread ID: 76747	2007-02-14 22:33:00	Replacing a Motherboard	Strommer (42)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
524775	2007-02-15 10:07:00	jen said: To clarify your understanding, the PC is a PC Company computer. They were known for locking in the Recovery CD into the original motherboard BIOS so that it wouldn't work if you either used a non-PC Company supplied BIOS update or changed the motherboard. beg to differ from considerable experience of replacing mobos on pc co puters, (largely due to the fact that they often used the old ECS purple death K7VTA3 boards which had a propensity to blow capacitors) the pc co 'recovery cd's' were ONLY windows xp and nothing else as far as i've ever seen.....and they worked fine with a different mobo.......well the many i've done sure did anyway pctek said: you need to install the board, then install Windows. A fresh install. Repairs and such don't usually work. XP is picky about new motherboards....... yep xp is 'picky' about new mobos but i've rebuilt many with new mobos and never had any particular probs with a 'dirty -over the top-install' .......in my experience they DO usually work indeed without too much trouble at all... Just install the new hardware then TRY to boot windoze.....if you are VERY lucky it'll actually run and get to windoze then you can run the mobo driver cd........if you are not so lucky and it does give you a nice BSOD then you can boot from your xp or 'pc co recovery cd' and go thru the process as if you are installing windoze then at an early stage it'll say 'lookin for existing windoze installations' and it'll find the verison you already have on the hdd.....at that point you then can run the 'repair' option .........it'll be VERY wlell worth your while BEFORE you do any of this to also try to retrieve the INSTALLED product key.....which cause of 'volume liscensing' systems used by manufacturers MAY be different to the C.O.A number on the sticker you have found.....above all a good piece of advice is to slave the drive to another puter FIRST and make an image of the drive so that in the event of a major prob you can re-write the image onto the drive and start again.....	drcspy (146)
524776	2007-02-15 19:11:00	Just install the new hardware then TRY to boot windoze.....if you are VERY lucky it'll actually run and get to windoze then you can run the mobo driver cd........if you are not so lucky and it does give you a nice BSOD then you can boot from your xp or 'pc co recovery cd' and go thru the process as if you are installing windoze then at an early stage it'll say 'lookin for existing windoze installations' and it'll find the verison you already have on the hdd.....at that point you then can run the 'repair' option .........it'll be VERY wlell worth your while BEFORE you do any of this to also try to retrieve the INSTALLED product key.....which cause of 'volume liscensing' systems used by manufacturers MAY be different to the C.O.A number on the sticker you have found.....above all a good piece of advice is to slave the drive to another puter FIRST and make an image of the drive so that in the event of a major prob you can re-write the image onto the drive and start again..... Excellent advice, thanks much drcspy. I'll have a crack at getting the data off the old HD by slaving it in my desktop, and making a drive image as well. Before booting up with the new mb installed, the big hurdle for me is to connect the mass of wires to the mb. A daunting task for someone who has not done this before. The mb came with a detailed map showing labelled connection points so this should help. I did mark a few connectors, but in the old setup there were a number of connectors not attached to anything so will these also be left unattached? Are there any common mistakes that I should avoid? .... Foxy - I may have implied that a cd reader is necessary to copy cd's - what I meant is that it makes the process easier, quicker, without having to write to the hd.	Strommer (42)
524777	2007-02-15 19:37:00	ok the only connector from case to mobo that REALLY matters is the power button one !!! .......that one'll be pretty easy.... the others CAN be a bit of a headache but you'll get it......the one thing to be VERY careful of is.......some cases have the usb connectors in a 'block' those are pretty easy however if they dont come in a block but about five little tiny plugs you MUST be VERY careful because if you get them plugged in wrong you CAN blow the motherboard........i've done it .......arggghhh	drcspy (146)
524778	2007-02-15 19:41:00	pctek said: you need to install the board, then install Windows. A fresh install. Repairs and such don't usually work. XP is picky about new motherboards....... yep xp is 'picky' about new mobos but i've rebuilt many with new mobos and never had any particular probs with a 'dirty -over the top-install' .......in my experience they DO usually work indeed without too much trouble at all... I think it might depend how similar the new board is to the old one. All the ones I've done hated it. Had to do a clean install, but then they were totally different boards to the old ones........... Can't hurt to try first I guess.	pctek (84)
524779	2007-02-15 20:09:00	well its certainly worth the try cause most if not all of the ones I've done were also considerably later boards than the originals and they worked fine.......the only one i really had troubles with was a winME system.....lol....	drcspy (146)
524780	2007-02-15 20:14:00	....the one thing to be VERY careful of is.......some cases have the usb connectors in a 'block' those are pretty easy however if they dont come in a block but about five little tiny plugs you MUST be VERY careful because if you get them plugged in wrong you CAN blow the motherboard........i've done it .......arggghhh Yeeeee ! :horrified Oh that makes me feel reeaal goooood ! :lol: Do you mean "usb connectors" from the ps ? I don't see anything that look like usb connectors. I'll snap a photo if needed. Thankfully the power on/off connector is labelled, and the 'sleep' connector and one or two others.	Strommer (42)
524781	2007-02-15 20:57:00	The USB connectors come from the front of your case (if your case has front USB ports that is). I'm pretty sure that PC Company computers have the 5 pin arrangement (not a block). You just have to make sure that you get the Power, the + and the - in the right place. The manual for your motherboard will tell you which one to put where, if the writing on the pins is different to what the manual says, and you can't translate, then post here and we can help. The other wires coming from the front of your case will be Power switch - and it doesn't matter which way round the pins on this go, Power LED - polarity does matter, but it wont kill anything if you get it wrong, the light just wont go, HDD LED - same as power LED and maybe a speaker - it's possible your new motherboard has a speaker built in though.	trig42 (11325)
524782	2007-02-15 22:15:00	Just want to say kudos to you, Steve -- I've enjoyed lurking on your progress! ... once you've got it all together (and with the help from everyone here, that'll be no problem!), the feeling you get from booting up a machine that you've built yourself is indescribable :thumbs: (Almost as good as the feeling when your first "real" program runs :))	davehartley (3487)
524783	2007-02-15 22:40:00	Thanks trig42. Good info. I have not worked on the 'puter today but may have time later. I am going to take it slowly, studying the mb instructions/map veerry carefully. I have printed some of the advice given on this thread as well, including your's. Dave,thanks for the encouraging comments. Hell, I replaced an old ceiling light in a bedroom last week with a modern classy unit and it felt almost as good as when I recently took our bathroom extractor fan to bits and got it working again. So yep the indescribable feeling you mention will be even better than my light and fan successes. The easy way would have just to get another 2nd hand pc off Trademe. It was my wife's decision. I explained that the old office pc needed a "new heart - a thingie called a motherboard and processor" (it took her 2 years to learn how to turn her laptop on :groan: so any technical language would be pointless), or maybe a new bitty thing (graphics card) which may or may not fix the problem. Anyway, she liked the idea of a heart transplant but did not like getting another used 'puter or risking $70 on a graphics card. Either way I thought "Hey, new geek stuff to play with, and more geeky learning! :D ;)	Strommer (42)
524784	2007-02-16 03:46:00	I am trying to connect the HD (from the pc that I am upgrading) into my desktop, but the connectors are different . I have removed the second hd in my desktop and have replaced it with the hd you see in the first photo: . imagef1 . net . nz/files/HD1 . jpg" target="_blank">www . imagef1 . net . nz In this photo you will see the Maxtor HD that needs to have data removed before putting it back into the upgraded pc . The two connectors floating on the top of the hd connected the Seagate second hd (used for backup) which is now removed . The two connectors do not fit the upgraded-pc hd . . imagef1 . net . nz/files/HD2 . jpg" target="_blank">www . imagef1 . net . nz This photo shows the blue connector leading from the Maxtor hd . . imagef1 . net . nz/files/HD3 . jpg" target="_blank">www . imagef1 . net . nz The only place I can see to plug the Maxtor blue connector is the vertical blue socket which is adjacent to the blue label "CD ROM Cable" . Is this the correct place to plug in the Maxtor? The other problem is that the Maxtor has 4 pin socket - see the first photo . This had a connector from the ps (in the pc that I am upgrading) . There is no free power plug in my desktop so does this mean I need to power the Maxtor from the (upgraded pc) ps (which is now sitting on the floor not yet reinstalled)?	Strommer (42)
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